August 20, 2010 7:52 am

My story today deals with the increasing reps of the first unit offense and defense, and how reserve quarterback Charlie Whitehurst fits into that equation after playing solid in the first preseason game of the year.

Whitehurst says he does not know how much he’ll play on Saturday against Green Bay, the team his father David Whitehurst started for in the 1970s, but he’ll be ready and has already forgotten about last week.

“That’s the only way to be successful I think in this league is to forget about it. If it was good, forget about it. And if it was bad, forget about it and move forward. And that’s what I’ve done, and that’s what I think we should do as a team.

“It was great to get a win last week, but that doesn’t mean a lot. It was preseason, and it’s all about tomorrow. So hopefully we improve and play better this week.”

Doug Farrar of Yahoo Sports talks to RB Leon Washington, who said 70 percent of what they ran with the New York Jets was zone scheme driven, so he should have no problem with the transition to Alex Gibbs’ scheme.

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Gregg Bell joined The News Tribune in July 2014. Bell had been the director of writing for the University of Washington's athletic department for four years. He was the senior national sports writer in Seattle for The Associated Press from 2005-10, covering the Seahawks in their first Super Bowl season and beyond. He's also been The Sacramento Bee's beat writer on the Oakland Athletics and Raiders. The native of Steubenville, Ohio, is a 1993 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., and a 2000 graduate of the University of California, Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism.

Feeds

I think we’re all looking forward to seeing CW with the ones (the line, most importantly) at some point. I would think tomorrow night will be his best chance for that actually. If history is any indication, the 3rd preseason game the ones play the longest and one would think Matt will get nearly all that time. Here’s to hoping we get to see it for a series or two tomorrow.

Here is also to seeing Forsett take his properly earned place among the starters tomorrow as well.

We’ve been rooting for Forsett for a long time, and it would be good to see him break out and establish himself. That said, I have a feeling that once Leon Washington gets his chance to get carries, he might put Forsett in second place again. Leon has a higher gear none of out other backs have.

I was interested to read this in the Farrar article:
Leon Washington recalled. “Before the 2009 season, [Jets offensive line] coach [Bill] Callahan sat down with Alex Gibbs and learned the zone-running scheme that we implemented last year, and that’s how we led the league in rushing, with zone and power.”

Gibbs has helped a lot of teams revamp their rushing attacks. Is it going to take hold here? When? We didn’t see much evidence emerge last week, and Green Bay’s defensive front won’t make things easy this week.

The main thing I want to see from whole preseason is our O line and TEs block a little better every game until they look ready for Sept 12. I have a fair amount of confidence in the rest of the team, but its hard to be confident in our O line until we really see it happen.

another part of the jets league leading rushing attack is that they were 100% committed to running the ball. They probably lead the nfl in carries under 3 yards but they ran the ball so much they eventually popped the long runs. I don’t get the feeling that Bates is that committed to running and balance. We saw what he did with the broncos (granted injuries factored in) and in the first preseason game, running was an afterthought. i wouldn’t be surprised if the hawks are passing 58-62%of the time. (the jets ran the ball about 60% of the time, most in the nfl last year)

Well we’ve had coaches make proclamations in the past about how committed they would be to the run – but they have all figured out real fast that if they don’t have the personnel to do it, they’ll be staring in the face of a 3 and out every time.. I think Bates is smart enough to know when to force the issue and when not to..

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